Palmetto berries: Industry has health benefits

By AISLING SWIFT | Naples Daily News | The Associated Press

Published: Saturday, September 28, 2013 at 03:37 PM.

"It's not a very wide canal, but considering that he did not know how to swim either, it was quite a feat that he was at least able to struggle his way to swim his way to shore," Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission spokesman Jorge Pino said of one man who made it to shore off 34th Avenue Southeast as the others clung to the boat.

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Saw palmetto berries (Serenoa repens), which grow wild in the Southeast, primarily Florida and Georgia, have been harvested and used for prostate health since the 1870s. Known as "the plant catheter," the herb strengthens the bladder.

About five Immokalee produce companies ship the berries to large processors, such as The Saw Palmetto Harvesting Co. in Frostproof, in Polk County, which makes them into powder products by drying, crushing and grinding the green whole berries or extracting the oils from more mature, darker berries. Processors then provide raw materials to distributors and manufacturers worldwide, such as Valensa.

For most, berry picking is a lucrative endeavor.

But pickers often must trudge through heavily wooded areas and deal with the trees, which grow up to 6 feet high and are covered in stiff, thin leaves. Pickers wear gloves to reach through saw-like, razor-sharp thorns beneath the leaves.

With recent heavy rains, rattlesnakes and others often slither up the trees out of the muck. The fronds also hide wasp and hornet nests.

The industry, with a strong presence in Immokalee, is now the No. 3 herbal supplement nationwide with about $200 million in sales, according to Valensa, a top provider. Added to roughly $500 million in sales around the world, Valensa's president says it's prompted a global market of about $700 million.

But berry picking can lead to arrests, danger due to bees, wasps, snakes and other wildlife such as boars and bears — even death from heat strokes or snake bites, and recently drownings.

For Immokalee's poorer residents and migrant farmworkers, the 98 cents offered per pound is one way to make ends meet, according to Ashley Sanchez, who runs Sanchez Produce in Immokalee with her father, Juan, providing berries to large processing companies that grind and dry them, extracting oils for supplements that are sold in health food stores or exported.

"It's been good this year," Sanchez said of the season, which began in August and usually ends after October. "None of the other crops are in season. It's a real help to the community. It pays the bills."

For three Immokalee men and a woman who crowded onto a small two-seat flatboat in southern Golden Gate Estates to pick and sell the berries, the harvest was deadly. Ramiro Gomez, 48, and Margarita Godinez, 36, died Sept. 16 when the boat capsized.

"It's not a very wide canal, but considering that he did not know how to swim either, it was quite a feat that he was at least able to struggle his way to swim his way to shore," Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission spokesman Jorge Pino said of one man who made it to shore off 34th Avenue Southeast as the others clung to the boat.

(asterisk) (asterisk) (asterisk) (asterisk) (asterisk)

Saw palmetto berries (Serenoa repens), which grow wild in the Southeast, primarily Florida and Georgia, have been harvested and used for prostate health since the 1870s. Known as "the plant catheter," the herb strengthens the bladder.

About five Immokalee produce companies ship the berries to large processors, such as The Saw Palmetto Harvesting Co. in Frostproof, in Polk County, which makes them into powder products by drying, crushing and grinding the green whole berries or extracting the oils from more mature, darker berries. Processors then provide raw materials to distributors and manufacturers worldwide, such as Valensa.

For most, berry picking is a lucrative endeavor.

But pickers often must trudge through heavily wooded areas and deal with the trees, which grow up to 6 feet high and are covered in stiff, thin leaves. Pickers wear gloves to reach through saw-like, razor-sharp thorns beneath the leaves.

With recent heavy rains, rattlesnakes and others often slither up the trees out of the muck. The fronds also hide wasp and hornet nests.

"It's a lot of danger, really dangerous," Ashley Sanchez said of encountering snakes and bees. "There are a lot of rattlesnakes because it's deep in the woods."

As a result, prices have risen from 40 cents a pound a few years ago.

"A few weeks ago, it was all the way up to $1.09 per pound. They want to give people a reason to go far. It's motivation," she said. "It's hard work. Who's going to do it for 50 cents a pound?"

Pickers deliver anywhere from 25,000 to 60,000 pounds daily, she said, with about 100 pounds in each sack.

"We're just one of five in town that does the buying," Ashley Sanchez said. "People just shop around until they find the best price. It's just people trying to make a living."

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Although it isn't illegal to pick berries, arrests occur when entering private property or wildlife management areas, such as Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary in Collier County. The berries are critical to the survival of many native wildlife species, especially the Florida black bear.

That prompts increased patrols during berry picking season.

Last year, state Fish and Wildlife officers made three arrests — two in Collier and one in the Panhandle. Others were made by deputies in Florida counties.

Edius Audatte, 42, an unemployed North Naples man, was arrested in late August, accused of grand theft and trespassing after state wildlife officers found him trying to haul 427 pounds of berries in burlap sacks from private property at Lely Resort. At the time, his haul was worth $350.38.

But the State Attorney's Office in Southwest Florida dropped charges after the property owner said the berries weren't worth anything to him, office spokeswoman Samantha Syoen said, adding, "It would be hard to prove value when the berries were not of value to the victim."

In October 2010, berry poaching on park land led to increased patrols around the Hernando Sportsman's Club in Weeki Wachee, where six Immokalee men were found with 5,000 pounds of illegally picked berries in their truck. They were arrested and eventually sentenced to two days in jail and fined $403.

A month earlier, 15 Immokalee men came out of the woods there after a scorching day of berry picking, only to find a friend missing. Authorities found him deep in the woods, dead from heat stroke.

One of the largest arrests occurred in November 2011, when state wildlife officers tipped off Polk County sheriff's deputies to roughly three dozen workers, their sacks full of berries as they waited on a dirt road inside a large Lakeland ranch, according to The (Lakeland) Ledger. There were 33 arrests, mostly Immokalee farmworkers, after deputies found 28,000 pounds of illegally harvested berries stuffed into 20-pound sacks.

At the time, the newspaper reported, the going rate was 40 cents per pound. Due to the large number of pickers, they weren't arrested but instead were given notices to appear in court on a misdemeanor charge, violating a county ordinance prohibiting the taking of natural resources from private and public lands, the newspaper reported.

As development eliminates woodlands in Southwest Florida, berry picking isn't as prevalent as it once was.

"It is far less common in Lee County now due to boom years, when large tracts of land were developed, (ending in) fewer properties with the product growing wild, lower prices on the berries and seemingly fewer migrant workers during harvest season," Lee sheriff's spokesman Lt. Larry King said